Good luck with the surgery
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Good luck with the surgery
I asked that question too.
"What if I just tell you I quit"?
The doctored replied that they will be testing for tobacco usage prior to performing the surgery... I think he mentioned a urine analysis but I'm not certain.
I know that smoking is becoming less and less socially acceptable these days, but the medical bureaucracy responsible for this policy is way out-of-bounds in my opinion.
Ok... I've implemented Plan B.
After this morning's video visit with the surgeon, I have to admit I was a bit frustrated, so I kicked back in my recliner for an hour or so to collect my thoughts and recalibrate my logic before proceeding.
Plan B...
I sent an email to my primary care physician in regards to the issues (COVID and smoking) brought up by the surgeon and asked if she had any suggestions for my path forward. In that email I also brought up my concern over waiting so long for the surgery and how that would impact my overall physical condition/health due to the fact that my physical activities are severely hampered/limited by my current condition. I don't want to turn into a bowl of jello while I'm sitting around waiting for months.
I then called and filed a complaint with the Members Services organization of my health provider (Medicare Advantage through Kaiser Permanente). This complaint includes the same topics, i.e., waiting time due to COVID, their failure to provide a necessary service due to the fact that I smoke, and my physical conditioning/health concerns as a result of waiting/physical inactivity.
Now I just have to give them a little time to respond. We'll see where this goes.
Just received a call from Kaiser following up on my complaint filed yesterday.
My concerns of postponing the surgery due to COVID, and their outright refusal to perform the surgery due to my smoking, are being forwarded to their "Expedited Review" function.
The rep assured me that a decision would be reached and I will be informed of such decision by Friday.
That's a reasonable response at this point. Obviously I'd like the process to be faster but I also realize that "stuff" takes time.
Tell them you are an illegal (oh wait....... "undocumented") immigrant.
You'll be on the OR table in the morning.
Rant over.:bolt:
Sitting around is making me anxious so I went out to the garage to do a little more polishing of my bike. I did the front fairing and the front fender. I still have the tank and the two lower front fairings to do.
Doing the fairing wasn't all that bad as I was primarily on my feet.
But the front fender - that's a different story. Crawling around on the ground, from side-to-side, for the 45 minutes or so that it took has done me in for a while.
Now I need to rest and allow the pain to subside a bit, then repeat the cycle. Probably tomorrow.
I hope no one here thinks I'm looking for sympathy - I'm not. I have had worse pains before. And I'm pretty good at dealing with whatever comes my way.
I just simply have extra time on my hands because my physical activity is somewhat limited. Documenting my journey here seems like a reasonable way to spend some of that time.
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Finished my bike today in three separate sessions with pain relief rest periods in between. Did the tank first and then each of the lower front fairings.
Looks GOOD!!!
Hopefully I'll feel up for a ride this weekend.
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Oh yeah, on a little side note, I have a video appointment with another surgeon tomorrow afternoon.